Expelled Kerala nun who took on rape-accused bishop seeks justice from Vaticanhttps://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala-nun-who-took-on-bishop-moves-vatican-against-congregation-decision-on-expulsion-5913117/

The Kerala nun, who hit the headlines last September when she participated in a protest by nuns demanding the arrest of a former Jalandhar bishop accused of rape, Saturday moved an appeal before the Vatican against Franciscan Clarist Congregation’s decision to expel her from it, news agency PTI reported.

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“I have filed an appeal. An email was sent to Vatican yesterday (Friday). I have also sent via post today (Saturday) to Vatican as well as their representatives in New Delhi,” Sister Lucy Kalappura, who hails from Karikkottakkari in Kannur.

Earlier this month, Sister Lucy was expelled by the Franciscan Clarist Congregation for ‘failing to give a satisfactory explanation’ for her lifestyle “in violation of the proper law of the FCC.”

The expelled nun also said that the Congregation had sent a letter to her mother on August 10, asking her to take her daughter back home from the convent in Karackamala (in Wayanad). In the letter to the nun’s mother dated August 10, FCC’s Provincial Superior in Mananthavady said the nun should leave the convent if she failed to make “recourse against the decree” within 10 days from the day on which she receives the communication.

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Kalappura said legally the congregation could not ask her to leave the convent since she has filed an appeal against its decision.

The Congregation, under the Roman Catholic Church, had dismissed the 53-year-old on charges of learning to drive, taking a loan to buy a car and publishing a collection of her poems, among others. It also said the nun was issued “proper canonical warnings”, but did not show the needed remorse.

“I have been asked to quit the convent within 10 days. But I am not going to vacate the premises. There are not only vows of obedience and poverty, but also of chastity. I have been a nun for the last 33 years. They can’t dismiss me like this. I will look at legal options after consulting a lawyer. I want to fight, as a woman I need security. I will seek police protection, if required,’’ Kalappura had earlier told The Indian Express.

Kalappura is a teacher with a church-run government-aided school and a member of the FCC convent at Karickamala village in Wayanad. Last year, she was one of the prominent faces of the agitation by nuns demanding the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who is an accused in the alleged rape of a nun from the Jalandhar-based Missionaries of Jesus.